Particular embodiments generally relate to the orchestration of business processes.
Business enterprises need to effectively model business processes to compete in a business environment. Business processes change over time and thus the processes need to be versioned. Also, business processes are orchestrated over a long time period and it is often necessary to have multiple versions of a business process in operation at the same time. Further, a user may only want a process to be effective on certain dates.
A business analyst typically models different versions of the business process. Then, to have the different versions of the business process translated into executable processes, the business analyst has to contact an information technology (IT) designer. For example, for multiple versions of a process to be in use at the same time, the IT designer needs to be explicitly specify the version in the uniform resource identifier (URI) or partner link in the executable process. Thus, each time a new version date needs to be added, an IT designer needs to be contacted. Also, the IT designer needs to wait until a date that the business analyst wants the process to run to deploy the business process. Also, the IT designer must un-deploy the executable process when the effectivity date becomes invalid. This is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Currently, it is only possible to create business process execution language (BPEL) processes in a BPEL editor and invoke a deployed BPEL process. Because the IT designer and the business analysts have different skill sets (the business analysts are familiar with the business process being modeled and the IT designer is familiar with the orchestration language, but not the business process), the resulting BPEL process developed by the IT designer may not work as the business analyst imagined. Accordingly, there may be a wide divide between the originally-conceived business process model and the implemented model. This is further magnified when multiple versions of a business process need to be designed.